How to best store wood scraps?

I have a small(ish) basement shop. Over the years I’ve amassed a lot of misc scraps of varying sizes. Right now I have them all just tossed in plastic tubs under my work benches. This is a flawed sysrem since I have to dig through them all if I’m looking for a certain size piece – think a box of Legos. I also have a variety of longer pieces – 8’, 12’ etc…

I don’t have the room, or walls, to mount the typical wood storage system. Do I have any alternatives?

Right now my “system” consists of trying to balance each new piece on top of the pile under my sliding miter saw…then kicking it and cursing at it and eventually standing on part of the pile while I make another cut.

-- Last week I finally got my $*i# together. Unfortunately, it was in my shop, so I will probably never find it again.

You could try to store them by size and if they’re longitudinal pieces, you could stand them on end so one doesn’t cover another and can be more easily retrieved. Swuarish pieces could be grouped together in another bin. Short cuts, well there’s nothing more that you can do other than toss them in the bins and dig thru.

I also have very little room. I have my wood stored in a small room in my walk-out basement, and I have to leave my garage shop, walk to the basement door, and move my wood to the shop.

My scraps also got out of hand. I was using pallets instead of tubs. Still a dog’s breakfast.I bought one of those wire racks, the ones with four or five shelves. I stacked it all on the rack, and the long stuff found places on my main wood rack for it.

I can now see all the ends of the wood, so I can pull out pieces for cutting boards, pens, jewelry boxes and other small items I build.I’ve been able to use up about 30% of it, although I add back as I do larger projects.It does work. You just have to be able to see the wood so you can remember it is there to use.Worked for me…

Wood stove always worked for me. Serioulsy, recently I’ve seen pics of cutting boards, bandsawn boxes, and numerous other small things made out of glued up scraps. So many I’m thinking of ways to keep mine (mine actually did hit the wood stove or the smoker).

After years of working on / studying this issue, I have come to the conclusion that the solution to smaller scraps is to use them immediately in some way. I now put them on the bench, right in my way and, regularly, make something with them or incorporate them into something or make a jig and, if they’re not readily usable, I yield them to the wood stove.

After watching the amount of work that goes into one of his boards, I would hope so.

My “scraps” go in a 5 gallon bucket, and get burned in the outdoor fire pit when that bucket is full. Anything too big for the bucket is deemed not scrap, and gets put in a pile under my sanding bench. I have been meaning to building a storage shelf for those longer cut-offs, though.